This invention relates to a method for determining a presence or absence of a nonparaff inophilichydrophobic microorganism in a body specimen by using a DNA extraction procedure and a novel DNA extraction procedure.
Several of my United States Patents disclose a method of identifying paraffinophilic and nonparaffinophilic microorganisms in a body specimen. Focussing particularly on detection of paraffinophilic microorganisms, a paraffin slide is placed into a receptacle containing a sterile aqueous broth. After this, a body specimen, such as fecal matter, is introduced into the receptacle. As the broth contains no carbon source for food for the microorganism, if the microorganism is a paraffinophilic microorganism, it will be baited by and attach to the paraffin coating on the slide in order to utilize the paraffin wax as a food/carbon source. By observing the microorganism growth on the slide, and by (if desired) performing a sequence of assays, the paraffinophilic microorganisms can be identified.
This method, however, does not eliminate the potential presence of a nonparaffinophilic hydrophobic microorganism, such as M. tuberculosis. Thus, what is needed is a simple, inexpensive and easy to use method that will allow the determination of the presence or absence of a nonparaffinophilic hydrophobic microorganism.